A social innovation is a new idea that benefits society
Social innovators are changemakers
Social Innovation for All programmes combine exploration, imagination and action
What is social innovation?
why do we exist?
Technological advancements and the imperative to reach net zero will significantly change the future of work but the education system remains largely unchanged over recent decades.
At school young people have limited opportunities to develop transferable skills such as creativity, problem solving, teamwork, communication, resilience and leadership (ref. Skillsbuilder)
Voice is about more than communication, it's agency, participation and citizenship. It's the opportunity to have your ideas heard and make a difference.
Talent is universal; opportunity is not. Only 1.5% of young people in the UK get the opportunity to participate in innovation opportunities at school, disproportionately in private schools. (ref. Nesta)
our team
FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Katherine Crisp, has over two decades of experience working with and for children and young people around the globe. She led the scale up of UPSHIFT, UNICEF’s flagship youth social innovation programme, overseeing its scale up from 6 to over 40 countries. She led the design and delivery of ImaGen Ventures, a global youth social entrepreneurship challenge focusing on often underserved communities of youth in over 50 countries. In the UK, she lead strategy and innovation for UNICEF UK and whilst with Scope she managed and designed services with and for children and young people with disabilities across England and Wales.
PROGRAMME MANAGER
Dorotea Imami leads the YGBC programme end to end, from schools and facilitators to monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting. She has spent over a decade championing youth voice and participation across the UK and internationally, including with Plan International UK, Barnet Council and Unicef Innovations Lab in Kosovo where she delivered UPSHIFT, UNICEF's youth social innovation programme. She believes young people should help shape the decisions that affect their futures..
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER
Jess supports our wonderful volunteer community and leads on delivering our regional and national events. Jess originally studied and worked in Fashion and is really passionate about how creative skills and design thinking can be used to solve environmental challenges.
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Ameena Rahim started with SI4A as a summer intern and never left! She has recently graduated (with a first class honours in marketing!) from Brunel University. With 7 years of teaching experience she also has a passion for educating young minds.
NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Caspian Woods is a marketing and publishing entrepreneur. He founded Editions Financial, a global financial content agency, sold to Communisis plc in 2014. Prior to that he built and sold the UK’s first Yearbook publisher. As an author, his business books have been published by the Financial Times. He is a strong advocate for youth enterprise through organisations including the Princes Trust, Unicef and the Young Green Briton Challenge.
NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Caroline Allen is an entrepreneurial sales leader with a background in technology. Having spent her career working in start ups and scale ups building high-performing commercial teams. She is now bringing her years of experience of commercial team-building and growth to help amplify the Social Innovation for All's impact.
our delivery partners
We work in close collaboration with other impact-led non profit organisations. If you are interested in partnering with us please get in touch.
GenEarth (formally Volunteers for Future) was founded in 2020, in the wake of school climate strikes. They are a non-profit social enterprise with a vision to help young people thrive on a healthy planet, and they deliver action-led programmes in schools that equip them with the skills, tools and confidence to build a better future for all. They are powered by collaboration - engaging climate innovative people and partners, and to date have directly worked with over 17,000 young people in the UK.
The Ministry of Eco Education supports all schools in the UK to integrate sustainability across their existing curriculum by presenting the resources and opportunities from 100's of organisations into an easy to use framework. MEE uses big questions exploring key societal issues around 7 themes of sustainability. Funded by the Green Britain Foundation, the Ministry of Eco Education provides free support and inspiration for teachers and acts as a macro organisation sharing best practice between teachers and summarising key research from academics.
EcoVida Routes Ltd was established in 2023 to support schools in developing their sustainability education through delivery of programmes that help young people engage with sustainability issues they identify with; professional development to upskill teachers to deliver sustainability education and employer engagement to bring the sustainability challenges and solutions of industry into education.